Riot Games lays-off over 500 employees, closes entire Riot Forge

Amidst the mass layoff in the gaming industry, Riot Games has now also let go a huge chunk of its workforce. As per reports, the company has let go of 530 employees as a move “toward a more sustainable future”.

As per the mail by Riot Games CEO Dylan Jadeja, the company back in 2019 started many projects which haven’t gone that well. This prompted the company to stop hiring and ultimately lay off a part of the workforce as cost-controlling measures.

A copy of the internal message from our CEO, Dylan Jadeja, can be found here: https://t.co/PB4fLuOMNc

— Riot Games (@riotgames) January 22, 2024

“Our costs have grown to the point where they're unsustainable, and we've left ourselves with no room for experimentation or failure—which is vital to a creative company like ours. All of this puts the core of our business at risk,” Jadeja said in his e-mail.

Game divisions also affected

The development team of Legends of Runeterra also saw a significant cut with the lay-off. The League of Legends-based card games haven’t seen much traction among their other titles. This could be due to other mainstream card games being popular among players.

The company is also ending Riot Forge, single-player games set in the League of Legends universe. It was being developed with external studios. Riot Games is now completely focusing on esports, music, and entertainment.

The affected employees are being provided a minimum of six months of severance pay along with a bonus from 2023. These employees now join over 6000 employees who were laid off since last year.

While these developers can get a job somewhere with their skill level, multiple good studios were affected. Big companies acquired several indie studios, ultimately running out of money and closing operations. Due to this, many studios now plan to remain independent.